


The Air You're Breathing

by cthulhuraejepsen



Category: The Matrix (Movies)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-20
Updated: 2018-02-20
Packaged: 2019-03-21 14:50:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13743246
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cthulhuraejepsen/pseuds/cthulhuraejepsen





	The Air You're Breathing

"Do you believe that my being stronger or faster has anything to do with my muscles in this place?" asked Morpheus. He had a wry smile. "Do you think that's air you're breathing now?"

Neo rested on the floor of the dojo, one step above being sprawled out on the floor. His muscles ached, sweat was running down to form a pool in the small of his back, and he was practically gasping for breath.

“Yes?” he asked, more to keep from having to move than because he was following the conversation.

“None of this is real,” said Morpheus. “None of it exists. It’s code, ones and zeroes.”

“I know,” said Neo. “I was a computer programmer. But there’s still air in the program, right?” He waved his hand back and forth in front of him, and felt the resistance of it. “It’s not really air, it’s ones and zeros, but there  _are_  ones and zeroes. There’s a representation of air in the code, somewhere.” He touched the back of his hand, which was slick with sweat. “And there’s some representation of me.” He touched the back of his head, where, in the real world, was a hole designed to fit a long spike.

“This isn’t the real world,” said Morpheus.

“I know,” said Neo. “But …” He touched his forearm, and felt the tendons there. “The muscles aren’t real, but they have a representation in the Matrix, or in the local version of it that we’re running. I don’t believe that it’s real, but there’s virtual air, and it gets taken into my virtual lungs, and … in the real world, my brain interacts with the world by transmitting electrochemical signals. That’s true, right? Not just a lie fed to me by the machines?”

Morpheus nodded.

“But then how does it work in the Matrix?” asked Neo. He’d mostly regained his breath, and now just rested on the floor as he tried to puzzle it out. “There’s a spike going into my brain right now. The electrical signals are being interpreted, just like they would be in the real world. There’s some data or process representation of my body, which gets taken as input, and that gets used to actually move my arms and legs. I mean, we use MRI machines and electrodes all the time in the Matrix, and those return expected results, and my virtual body is pumping virtual blood, because I can feel my pulse. The virtual body breathes virtual air, and that virtual air must contain something like virtual oxygen, because people in the Matrix still die from suffocation and drowning. When you hold your breath in the Matrix, the hypercapnic reflex sets in, and you start to panic. But that doesn’t happen because of any conscious or subconscious mental process. It happens because there’s too much carbon dioxide. Which means that it must be happening in the real world in order to affect people in the Matrix.”

“And what does that mean?” asked Morpheus calmly.

“It means … there’s a link between the physical body and the virtual body. When the virtual body has an excess of carbon dioxide, I’d guess that a signal gets sent from the Matrix to the pod, and the pod responds by regulating carbon dioxide in the bloodstream.” He touched the back of his neck, where the spike was in the real world. “But my body isn’t in the pod here, it’s in the chair, so my breathing in the virtual world and in the real world are disconnected. There’s some code somewhere that sends a message to the pod, which is unreachable, so nothing happens. It doesn’t matter to my physical body what happens in the virtual world. All that makes intuitive sense to me. But why does my virtual body not need virtual air? Your virtual muscles absolutely  _should_  determine how strong you are in the virtual world, since the muscles have some model that follows its own rules.” Neo made a fist and watched the tendons in his forearm. “It shouldn’t matter what I think about those rules.”

Morpheus watched him intently, then broke into a wide, gap-toothed smile. “Congratulations Neo. You’ve passed the first test.”


End file.
